I Want My Solar

Soaring energy costs, increased international demand for cheap fuel, and in-your-face realities of global warming all add to one conclusion: America needs renewable energies in a big way, and we need it today, not another 20 years down the road.

Industry has simply proven that they are unwilling to produce on a scale that brings down prices. For 30 years, the mantra of the technologies is that solar is not cost effective. For thirty years, industry has been saying it’s just around the corner, in ten years we will have viable product. I am sick of the wait, and think we can ill afford to wait any longer.

On a visit to a product maker’s site, I read that, “for the industry, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that business has never been better, the bad news is that business has never been better. Even our increased (PV- Photo Voltaic) module supply is not sufficient to meet all the market demand.”

So instead of building supply and meeting demand, the industry is content to limit production and keep prices high, keep them out of reach of real viability.

Security
As US and Ally troops deploy to safeguard Iraq and the Middle East, as daily news talks about terrorism and the insecurity of large scale infrastructure, like oil pipelines and transportation systems, I shake my head in disbelief.

Are we in a state of war? Has the world changed so much since the days of the Greatest Generation, that American business refuses to adopt the one clearest solution to so many of our national woes?

Solar is the one technology that can save us and give every single business and homestead energy independence.

Oil pipelines and power plants are big, sprawling facilities that requires constant security and present appealing targets. Solar panels on every roof change the entire picture. It creates millions of redundant, distributed, unconnected resources. Too many targets to turn off the lights. Never mind the environmental benefits, never mind that we could be paying US companies to give us Solar as opposed to importing oil. Never mind the fact that we could become energy independent, not only nationally, but also personally.

Vision
Do you want to create jobs? Do you want to build our economy? How about US leadership in an industry, that if it came to be, would solve so many of our global woes in the process? That’s what solar could be.

Here I sit in my Florida office, baked in sunshine. We burn coal to power the air conditioning. We import oil to fuel the power plants. Global warming is real.

Does a monopoly state exist in the energy world? What barriers keep solar from really impacting us all? National security, the economy, environmental stewardship and personal freedom are all at stake. What will it take to move us forward?

A bold step forward, right now, could renew our country. Want to make friends of the world? Provide solar on a massive scale. Let the newly developing world fuel their growth with power from the sun, not petroleum.

Publishing a site like GreenOrlando takes huge amounts of sustained effort. Since 2004, we’ve done our best to shine a light on people and organizations doing good things in our local community–the City Beautiful.